Baseball is such a well known, widely played sport that in the United States it is referred to as the national pastime. Historically, baseball was played as recreation by soldiers during the American Civil War, and it has been played professionally for well over a hundred years. Furthermore, baseball is played every year by millions of players; while millions more attend games live or watch it on television.
In some communities baseball is played from a very young age until well past middle age. However, baseball is not an easy game to play well. In fact, the ability to hit a major league fastball is considered by some to be the most difficult activity in professional sports. Because of the difficulty of playing baseball well, many locations and communities provide player coaching from an early age until completion of college.
To assist in learning how to play baseball and to actually play baseball, special playing and training devices have been developed. For example, uniforms, hats, special mitts for catchers and first baseman, batting helmets, training helmets, padding, speed guns, and numerous other devices have been developed over the years.
One problem coaches have with teaching proper play is dealing with external visual distractions that a player experiences. For example, friends waving, cars moving, birds flying, and swirling dust, to name but a few, can distract players. Such external distractions present particular problems with younger players who can often be highly, possibly hyper, active and who find it difficult to give the proper focus to learning how to play well. For example, just hitting a baseball is such a difficult thing to do for some younger players that external distractions make it a highly frustrating activity. But, once a player “grooves” his swing so that it becomes a natural reaction to follow a pitched ball along its path, and properly timing his swing, that player is well on his way to becoming a solid hitter.
Unfortunately, in the prior art eliminating outside distractions until a grooved swing develops was very difficult or even impossible to do. Since visual distractions make it difficult for some players to become successful, those players may become frustrated and either stop playing all together or never achieve the success that they are capable of.
Therefore, a technique of reducing visual distractions on a player would be beneficial. Even more beneficial would be a low cost technique that reduces visual distractions on a player.